To deliver thee from the strange woman— The strange woman means one who is not yours, whether she be married or not. Solomon expresses by this name a common woman, or a married woman who abandons herself to debauchery. See chap. Proverbs 5:3, &c. Some have thought that, under the figure of an adulterous woman, the wise man persuades us to shun all those doctrines which draw away the mind from God: such as those of the Epicureans and idolaters. But this seems to be intimated before in the 12th verse; and therefore we may understand the present passage literally as a caution against the breach of the next commandment to that mentioned in the first chap. Proverbs 2:10-11 where he charges his son by no means to consent with murderers; and here, to shun fornication and adultery, which entirely alienate the mind from wisdom. One of the first things, therefore, to which she directs us, and the principal benefit that we receive from her, is, to preserve our understandings from being corrupt, by keeping our bodies pure and undefiled: See Bishop Patrick and Calmet.
Related Commentaries of Proverbs 2:16
Proverbs 2:16
16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;